Issue 1, 2018

Controllable manipulation of bubbles in water by using underwater superaerophobic graphene-oxide/gold-nanoparticle composite surfaces

Abstract

Manipulation of bubbles in water is of great importance in the mineral industry, oil production and separation, wastewater treatments, boiling processes, biological cell incubations, microfluidics and miniature reactor technologies. Generally, bubbles in an aqueous environment are inclined to stick to the channel walls, resulting in blockage and energy-consuming treatments. Herein, we report the fabrication of low-adhesion graphene-oxide (GO)/gold-nanoparticle (GNP) hybrid films with a good underwater superaerophobicity, which have the ability to arbitrarily manipulate bubbles in water. Owing to the hydrophilic nature of GO nanosheets and hierarchical structures of aggregated GNPs, the GO/GNP hybrid films showed low adhesion towards bubbles in water. Thus, bubbles could be freely manipulated using home-made tools coated with these low-adhesion, underwater superaerophobic GO/GNP hybrid films. The controlled 1D and 2D movements of one bubble and merging/reaction of two bubbles can be achieved. This study provides a new avenue to design new strategies for bubble manipulations, and further extends the application of superwettable 2D materials in interface fields involving gas phases.

Graphical abstract: Controllable manipulation of bubbles in water by using underwater superaerophobic graphene-oxide/gold-nanoparticle composite surfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Oct 2017
Accepted
21 Nov 2017
First published
21 Nov 2017

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 231-238

Controllable manipulation of bubbles in water by using underwater superaerophobic graphene-oxide/gold-nanoparticle composite surfaces

R. Xu, X. Xu, M. He and B. Su, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 231 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR07349F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements